The snow that was falling in the Washington, DC, area has just stopped and I hear the roads out in the 'burbs are miserable. The last time that it snowed here on Innaugural Eve, it was 1/19/1961 and the new President was John F. Kennedy. Because all of the snowplows were tied up in clearing the parade route (HAH! On which more later.), the commuter routes were left to their own devices and things very quickly went to Hell. It took my Dad 8 hours to get from the Executive Office Building home to McLean, Virginia.
I was in my Rat Year at the Virginia Military Institute at that time and we were ordered by the governor to come up and march in the parade. It was during exam week, but orders were orders, so we came. We were formed up in front of Barracks at 1630 on 1/19/61 in fatigue uniforms carrying our parade gear. The gear was loaded into the luggage areas of these antique busses and we were packed aboard. We left Lexington to drive over the Blue Ridge to Washington in a convoy led by 3 "Deuce-and-a Halfs" mounted with snowplows and loaded with sand.
We arrived at Fort Myer outside of Washington at 0430, having spent some 11 hours in transit. They fed us powdered eggs, coffee, and toast, allowed us to change into our parade uniforms, and off we went to the formation area on Constitution Avenue, N.E.. We started forming up at 0830 and then stood around freezing until 1300 when the Innaugural Parade stepped off. We were in "Company Mass" formation, sandwiched between the US Marine Corps Band and the Hokie band of Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The two bands were playing on a different cadence, which was really screwing up the VMI Corps, as you can imagine, what with snow and slush to be dealt with as well as the two cadences. The Regimental Staff began to count cadence and the other command structure picked it up and we all settled into the cadence that they were counting. We must have looked pretty good, as we won First Place for marching units.
We got back to Fort Myer and were fed cold sanwiches and coffee and loaded aboard the busses back to Lexington. We got back about 0100 on 1/21/61, exhausted, cold, and very hungry. They fed us at the Dining Hall and sent us off to our rooms with orders to stay put until much later in the day, IIRC. But I was pretty foggy by then, so I may not be remembering correctly. In any case, I have never been interested in watching an inaugural parade since then.
After just checking weather.com to see the temp. explains some things, it's 8 degrees out. I guess being a snowboarder makes me optimistic about such weather, most people hate it. Have a good day all 
I hate winter weather. :grumpy: 
let's hope classes are canceled tomorrow and a trip to the "mountain" is in order.
